Own a piece of electric car history with this bizarre-looking wedge
Craving some late-’70s wedge styling for your collection? Not quite ready to deal with a finicky Italian V-12 in a Countach? Concerned the Lotus Esprit’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder will cost too much at the pump? We’ve got the car for you.
This Craigslist posting for a 1980 Comuta-Car was spotted by Barnfinds.com and it has everything you’d want in a ’70s-designed wedge car—except power, prestige, and a racing pedigree. What it does have is a 48-volt, 8-horsepower electric powertrain that’s capable of delivering you and a passenger to your destination at up to 38 mph. As long as that destination is within 40 miles of a charging source. Honestly, that seems pretty impressive.
The ad notes that it has a brand-new motor from D&D Motor Systems, and so it now has the same motor you’d find in a golf cart. That is entirely appropriate, as the Comuta-Car evolved from the CitiCar, which used lots of the same parts as a Club Car golf cart. This later-production model has the NTSB-required bumpers that take away from the quirky styling a bit, although the later design also includes sliding windows and improved heater and seats. There is a bit of rust on the car, and its once-bright blue paint is faded, but the sweet stripes on the sides that kick up on the quarter panels are totally intact.
The CitiCar and Comuta-Car were the most prolific post-war electric cars made in the U.S. until Tesla came around. Like Tesla’s first models, the CitiCar sold for far more than the average new car, but it came at a time when fuel economy was a major selling point. If you have a soft spot for underdog entrepreneurs and quirky styling, you could do a lot worse for the $3,300 asking price. Like the advertisement said, “Not going far? Drive COMUTA-CAR!”